April 26, 2010

Whatever kind of game it is, the Hawks will play it

Jonathan Toews celebrates his goal in Game 6. (Nuccio DiNuzzo/Tribune)

In the seven-goal first period in Game 6 of Blackhawks-Predators on Monday night, it seemed like the last team with the puck would win.

The rest of the game, it was the better team that would win.

Or maybe I should say survive.

In either case, it was the Hawks.

That was how it was always supposed to turn out. It was not, however, supposed to be this dicey, what with the Predators twice having a one-game lead before the Hawks won the last three to take this first-round series in six.

But let me ask you: Did it feel as if the Hawks played like a team that swept the last three games?

Not to me, it didn’t.

The Hawks rarely dominated with their puck-possession game. The rarely went tape-to-tape. They rarely had their speed going.

But to their credit, they played the game that was there, even if it changed during the game the way it did Monday night, from a shootout in the first period to a grind for the last 40 minutes. Or the way they came back so spectacularly in Game 5. Or the way they owned the boards and loose pucks in Game 4.

Perhaps the best example of the Hawks’ willingness to do what was necessary came when they were shorthanded. When you kill 25 of 26 power plays in a playoff series, with all the hustle, smarts and guts to block shots that it takes, you’ve certainly earned your ticket to the next round. Take a bow, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Brent Sopel.

Hawks rookie goalie Antti Niemi had two shutouts in this series, his first NHL playoff experience. Now he has won a series. He’s not a rookie anymore. And look how he has grown. In the first third period he played, he allowed one of the ugliest goals that led to a Nashville comeback on Hawks ice. In his last third period Monday, he gave the Predators nothing, capped by two terrific saves in the dying seconds when the Predators had an extra skater.

Jonathan Toews got beat up more in this series than at anytime seemingly since Vancouver gave him a concussion, and look who’s coming to town.

Toews scored just once in the first five games of this series (he wasn't scoreless the way I originally posted), and when he found the net in Game 5, he found it at a big time in a big-time way, as you'd expect of the young captain. Toews fought through a check at the net to slide a rebound around goalie Pekka Rinne late in the first period to give the Hawks a 4-3 lead. To give the Hawks all they would need.

Toews finished Game 6 with a goal and two assists, but don’t forget his two huge faceoff wins in his own zone in the final 72 seconds when the Predators pulled their goalie for an extra skater. The Hawks were able to gain control of the puck and clear the zone, frustrating the already frustrated Predators, and finally, Toews got the puck out to John Madden for an empty-net goal that let everyone exhale.

Exhale and consider a Vancouver opponent working on a 12-month grudge since the Hawks eliminated them in last spring’s second round.

The Canucks are faster and more offensively talented than the Predators. They are as tough as the physical Predators, as Toews found out when Willie Mitchell gave him a concussion. (Call it karma or irony, but Mitchell is out with post-concussion syndrome.)

Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo can be every bit the wall that Rinne was early on. But he can be beaten the same way the Hawks solved Rinne, the same way the Hawks beat Luongo last year -- bodies in the crease.

Comments

I don't believe in fate or magic or destiny or sports angels or anyone's god willing anything to happen in a sporting event. I think that the only way a team wins a title is by having better players, coaches, effort and results than any other team in the playoffs that year.

But when you get a short-handed, empty net goal with 13 seconds left to force over time, kill off four minutes of penalty, then win a game that appeared all but lost, and then the next game you have a one-in-a-million goal from center ice in the next game, you have to feel good about your team's chances to have a special year.

Looking forward to the Vancouver series - it should be epic. GO BLACKHAWKS!

Just skate, hit, and when all else fails, communicate on defense.
If we do those things, The War Of Attrition is Ours.
We might be tied after two again.
But, we'll win in 5 or 6 again. Just like Music City.

congrats to the hawks! as you get ready for the canucks, we are wondering if we get the coyotes or your arch-rival wings. either way, our success will depend on WHICH team shows up....if the games 1-3 team shows, you will be playing the other guys. BUT, if the game 5 team shows up, you will have your sticks and pads full of trouble. note that i am putting you past vancouver and into the conference finals. you will be successful at least that far......i have been telling my wife natalie all season about the talent on your team....i watched you in san jose....and talk post-game between hawks fans and us was "see you in the conference finals"....well, we are both one step closer to that dream matchup.....see you there!

Learn what a blog is yet? Interesting that you take something entitled RosenBLOG, which is clearly akin to a column, and try to construe it as some sort of factual account.

Or, learn how newspapers work yet? Interesting that you cry like a little girl about the blog author's headline in some ad hominem argument about Rosenbloom's knowledge of the game based on a headline, when headlines are written by editors.

It's OK to not know much about how newspapers work. Just don't pretend you do.

Even though this was only a game six, and the Hawks would have had another opportunity at home to win the series, i thought after the game 5 miracle, it was important to not allow Nashville a chance to regroup by winning game 6.

This Nashville team was a fighting bunch who was quite a handful. They gave the Blackhawks a good fight, and also might have been a good learning tool moving forward. I'm not sure the Blackhawks were playing with the mental capacity that's needed for playoff hockey, until they ran into this team. Fortunately, they survived it, and hopefully they learned from it.

The Vancouver Canucks will be to this Blackhawks team what the New York Knicks were to the Bulls in the early to mid 1990s — a team that is talented and quite good in its own right, and will give the Hawks all the drama they can handle and then some. But if everyone who matters is healthy and on the ice, they just won't have, ultimately, what it takes to top the more talented Hawks.

nice write up Rosenbloom
The Blackhawks and Canucks meet again… it doesn’t get much better than this folks. Last year, Vancouver gagged themselves and lost against the Hawks but this year, Luongo will be the difference maker… here is a preview and proof.. http://www.lionsdenu.com/nhl-playoffs-western-conference-round-two-preview-and-predictions/
Either way I see this series going DEEP … and it’s going to be a doozie.

About the author

They tell me I have to write this bio thing to go along with my blog. Not sure you care, but the bosses apparently do, so here you go:

I've covered sports for more than 30 years in print, on radio and now in cyberspace. In that time, I've smoked cigars with Michael Jordan, Mike Ditka and Red Auerbach, I've been thrown on a table by NHL all-time bad boy Dave "Tiger'' Williams, I've covered the Super Bowl, NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals, I've had former Bears lineman Stan Thomas act like he was going to squeeze my head like a zit, I've interviewed Roger Clemens, Hank Aaron and Donald Trump, I've been cursed at by Mike Keenan, I've watched Denis Savard go into the Hockey Hall of Fame, I've been yelled at by Bill Wirtz, I talked sports with Ben Affleck at the World Series of Poker, and I cry almost every time I see Jim Craig skate up the ice looking for his dad in the stands as the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team wrote the greatest sports story ever. Ever.